Trent XWB test program: 11 powerplants used with more than 3000 test hours

A total of 11 Trent XWBs have participated in the test program to date, accumulating more than 3,100h in ground tests and aboard the A380 testbed.

Still under way are some final tests needed to secure FAA cross-certification, and then the focus will shift to securing early extended-range twin-engined operations approval. The target is to eventually certificate the A350 to fly up to 350min from the nearest suitable diversion airfield at single-engined flying speed.

The cold start capability of the Trent XWB has been extended down to -26°C after winter demonstrations using the company's testbed in Manitoba, northern Canada, and this is expected to be further lowered to -40°C.

"We are now able to do far more full envelope testing, which is great for the reliability and maturity of the product," says Young.

Between 16 and 18 engines will have been assembled in the pre-production facility at Derby prior to the start of series production, in an effort to understand the optimum way of assembling the engine and to determine appropriate work-station content.

"Assembly hours are coming down nicely, as we learn how to build the engine," says Young. Fully-fledged flow-line assembly should begin by mid-2014, in time for the planned ramp-up in A350 production.

"We're very close to finalising our footprint and layout for the full flow-line facility," says Young.

Based on the article “All eyes on XWB” published in FlightGlobal

Final assembly of the MSN3 starts at Toulouse ... two months later than announced

Build-up of the third A350 XWB has started at Toulouse final assembly line 2 months later than announced, where the aircraft’s 3 fuselage sections were transferred following their arrival aboard a Beluga transporter.

Designated MSN3, this aircraft will be deployed for a variety of fight testing – including performance at high and medium altitudes, in cold weather and hot temperatures and on long-range flights.

Initial assembly steps for MSN3 included installation of the jetliner’s 50-metre-long electrical harness for flight test measurements, which – along a complement of electrical cabinets – forms an advanced “supercomputer” called METRO.  This was followed by the fuselage sections’ successful moulding at the final assembly line’s Station 50.

There are two such Station 50 locations for fuselage join-up on the A350 XWB Final Assembly Line: the first, which is designated Station 50A, and another called 50B. MSN3 was the first aircraft joined on Station 50B, which had a higher readiness level thanks to debugging that followed the initial two jetliners’ assembly on Station 50A.

In coming days the FAL team will keep on drilling the fuselage join-up with around 10.000 holes and a fuselage sections overlap of only 8 cm.

“The whole process also is quicker thanks to high maturity of the sections and great efficiency of the teams who have already trained on the first two aircraft,” explained Airbus’ Loic Perrin, who in charge of Station 50.



US aerospace manufacturers delegation visits the FAL

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut – shown here at the A350 XWB final assembly line – led a delegation of home-state aerospace manufacturers in a visit to Airbus’ Toulouse, France facilities.

Richard Blumenthal, the United States Senator for the state of Connecticut, led a delegation of home-state aerospace manufacturers in a visit to Airbus, in Toulouse, France.  Airbus is the largest export customer of the U.S. aerospace industry.  At Airbus the delegation met with Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Brégier, Executive Vice President for Procurement Klaus Richter and other procurement officials. The delegation also toured the state-of-the-art A350 XWB and A380 Final Assembly Lines.

Formerly Connecticut’s Attorney General, the Senator was elected to the Senate in 2010.  He is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and also of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has responsibility over FAA and other transportation matters.

The three-day mission will take place from February 18-20, and will connect nine Connecticut precision manufacturers to senior procurement officials at Airbus, Goodrich Aerostructures, Aircelle, Liebherr, and DGA Techniques Aéronautiques.

Participating Connecticut companies include AdChem Manufacturing Technologies, AeroCision, Alpha Q Inc., Capewell Components, Jonal Laboratories, Microtech, Pegasus Manufacturing and SPX Precision Components. Jointly, the nine companies employ over 6,000 people in Connecticut. For many but not all of the firms, the trip will be the first introduction to Airbus and their top tier suppliers. Most of the companies are precision component manufacturers, providing highly specialized technology vital to aerospace engineering.

“I am proud to join these nine manufacturers in showing the European aerospace market the ingenuity, quality and value that Connecticut precision manufacturers can provide. It is my hope that this visit will help these outstanding companies expand their work internationally and add jobs here in Connecticut,” Blumenthal said.

Austrian winglets for the A350 XWB

With around 1,800 employees, FACC is one of the world’s leading companies in the design, development and production of advanced fiber reinforced composite components and systems for the aviation industry. Their range of products reaches from structural components (spoilers and winglets in A350 XWB program) to engine components (in this case weight-optimised translating sleeves and engine components) to complete passenger cabins for passenger planes and helicopters (in A350 XWB, passenger door lining, smoke detection covers and overhead stowage compartments).

FACC also participates in other programs from Airbus (A380, A340, A320), Boeing (787), Bombardier, Embraer, Sukhoi, and COMAC as well as for engine manufacturers as Rolls Royce. With a manufacturing facility planned to be open in China, FACC has been a partner with Mubadala supporting them in the new Strata facility.   

With the maximum rate in the program, around 250 employees at the three production sites in Austria will be working on the production of the A350 XWB components.

  

FACC is responsible for the development, qualification including testing, the design and manufacture of the production tools as well as production and assembly of the individual components to create a system ready-to-install.

FACC team working in the program, with more than 100 experts, have been located in Austria, Bratislava and also on site at Airbus in Filton/UK.

With this project, FACC is also achieving new dimensions in component testing: so for the first time on parts of this size – the largest component measures six metres - full scale tests are being carried out at FACC. This involves subjecting the complete winglet system to static and dynamic testing for resilience, fatigue and endurance, up to mechanical failure.

The winglet unit consists of the wingtip (wing extension) and the attached winglet as can be watched in the croquis above. 

Rolls-Royce is ready to demonstrate the maturity & service-ready credentials of the Trent XWB.

As a certification milestone is reached, Rolls-Royce is turning its attention to proving the maturity of the A350's Trent XWB powerplant ahead of first delivery next year.

Rolls-Royce is well aware that as sole engine supplier to the A350 it has a critical role in ensuring the European-built widebody enjoys a relatively trouble-free commercial debut.

Rolls-Royce is understandably endeavouring to leave no stone unturned as it seeks to demonstrate the maturity and service-ready credentials of the Trent XWB, its most advanced three-spool large turbofan.

Maturity and more maturity. Flying tests will continue on next 3 months.

An illustration of this determination is the fact that although all flight-test work required for certification of the Trent XWB has been completed, Airbus and Rolls-Royce have together decided to extend the campaign using the A380 flying testbed ahead of the A350's maiden sortie.

"We both consider that it's the right thing to do for powerplant maturity and we're both very supportive of making sure the powerplant is as mature as it possibly can be so as to not give [the A350] any form of problem at entry into service," says Trent XWB programme director Chris Young. "So we're prepared to carry on investing in the product between us," he adds.

The extra flying using the A380 - which first got airborne with the Trent XWB installed in February 2012 - facilitated additional systems tests and provided an opportunity to take the powerplant through its paces under extremely cold conditions.

The cold weather flying tests were performed in Iqaluit in Nunavut, Canada, where temperatures were -23°C (-9°F).

"This is all about proving the long-term service maturity of the engine and just carrying on getting experience in representative environments," says Young.

Final configuration vs. certification.

The engine installed on the A380 is the same one used for the most recent phase of certification testing, and is "very close" to the final configuration that will power the A350 on its first flight later this year.

"There are a few minor changes as always around things like pipe routings and some of the last minute external changes that we've found but overall it's very representative of the bill of material, which is why it makes sense to carry on flying and getting the evidence and data from it," says Young.

Based on the article “All eyes on XWB” published in FlightGlobal

Mitigating a risk; Airbus drops Li-ion batteries to protect the EIS schedule.

Airbus has decided to drop lithium-ion batteries on the A350 XWB program to protect the EIS- entry into service schedule planned for mid-2014.

Airbus said the concerns did not necessarily center around the technology as such, but were caused mainly by the regulatory uncertainty following the 2 Boeing 787 incidents. Airbus was worried about late additional compliance criteria that could have been introduced by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The company plans to mature the technology further nonetheless.

Initial flight tests will be performed with lithium-ion batteries, because it is already too late now to implement the change for the early part of the flight test program. However, the A350 will later be certified with Nickel-Cadmium batteries.

“We confirm we are opting for nickel cadmium for the A350 main batteries to protect the programme schedule.  This decision is about protecting the integrity of our program schedule… (it’s not about any safety concerns about Li-ion batteries, we continue in parallel to mature for the A350.  With so much uncertainty raised by the Boeing 787 investigation, we are being prudent in order protect our programme schedule. This is business as usual.”

“As a result of making this decision now, Airbus does not expect it to impact the A350 XWB Entry Into Service schedule,” an Airbus statement added.

This switch of lithium-ion batteries to Nickel-Cadmium batteries also affects to the A320NEO as Airbus stated that the root cause of the 2 incidents occurring on Japanese 787s remains "unexplained, to the best of our knowledge".

The Ni-Cd batteries will be required for flight certification, so they'll be swapped before appropriate certification tests, as initial flight-envelope testing doesn't depend on battery type nor the source of electrical power.

Since Airbus is making this movement as a mitigation plan in a risk-reduction strategy, Boeing needs to prepare a contingency plan as the batteries issue has already impacted 787 production plan and budget and the 787 fleet remains grounded since mid-January.

Airbus will retain battery supplier Saft for the new scheme. Saft had been selected to supply lithium-ion batteries to the A350. Airbus is likely to use a version of batteries designed for the A380 defined as "proven and mastered" nickel-cadmium technology.

Airbus has yet to detail any specific electrical architecture changes which might be required as a result of the switch, but says it is taking the decision early in order to preserve the flight-test and entry-into-service schedule. The weight impact is estimated around 200 pounds / 90kgs.

"Special attention was given to mitigate the identified risks inherent to this technology," it says, adding that it will embark on "additional maturity studies" focusing on lithium-ion battery behaviour.

Barrels or panels. A350 XWB is a little bit of a mix.

The innovation of the A350 XWB extends to the physical structure, and commencement of assembly has enabled Airbus to verify its strategy of opting for carbonfibre panels over a barrel-type design for the A350.

"It was a big debate at the beginning of the programme - barrels or panels," says Evrard. "It's a little bit of a mix. I think we made the right choice. The industrial process shows we made the right choice with our panel concept."

Based on article “Airbus sticks by demanding A350 XWB targets“ published in Flightglobal